Amidst all the positivity and perfection that others see in this drama, you can count on me to be a real grinch and center in on all the reasons that it was not entirely flawless. That is not to say I hated it; far from it, but I fail to share the unwavering, absolute love that many others seem to.

Many things about A Love So Beautiful was a surprise to me. I'll be the first to admit that I harbor a real prejudice each time I enter the realm that is a Chinese drama - watching them throughout my childhood, they were unfailingly littered with a) tragedy, b) horrible CG, and/or c) gagworthy storylines (typically, an entertaining combination of all three). And quite honestly, few nowadays seem to impress me. Call it bias, but I still think the Mainland has much to learn regarding what constitutes a good show.

A Love So Beautiful was different from the moment I picked it up. It does not present melodramatic conflict for you to brood over, but instead focuses on the innocence of a teenager trying to get through the struggles of school and first love. I did not grow up within the Chinese education system, but there is something incredibly charming and nostalgic about seeing a group of five friends trudge through their high school years. Having teachers scold you, finding unpredictable friendships, secretly liking someone...A person is only naive in such a way for a small amount of time, and this drama perfectly captures that foolish yet heartwarming attitude of youth.

It only helped that the cast consisted of young, yet capable actors. How annoying is it when you watch a show about high school and the actors are in their mid- to late-twenties? And then you spend the entire duration brooding over how old they look and how nothing about them reminds you of a cute teenager. A Love So Beautiful never suffers from this issue; because not only do the main actors look young - they are. They act their parts perfectly, accurately presenting the turbulent feelings of their characters and how they grow over the course of the drama. It's difficult to find five lead actors who interact with one another with so much natural chemistry that it's hard to believe that they're acting.

But turn on the sad music - I'm done gushing about all the things I absolutely adored. Here's what dragged it down from a perfect 10: as soon as the characters left high school, the plot began to wander. There is a distinct imbalance between the warmth that is their high school lives and the confusion that is their "growing up."

I would like to ensure you that I don't hate the fact that they got older. It was the delivery; how the writers depicted their "maturing" that was irksome. What I found particularly problematic was how you spend over half of the drama watching them in high school - and you love it to pieces - but then you have less than eight episodes to watch them speed carelessly through cliche relationship problems and time skips. The transition is rough and the trip doesn't get any smoother. It would have made far more sense to me to either limit the story of this show to their high school years, or add more episodes to spread out their time as they age past university and through adulthood.

I simply didn't feel the magic in the latter part of the drama, which follows their post-graduation lives. It's still fine to watch, but it just isn't the same. I wanted to see the ways they carefully sort out problems between themselves and thus mature, not watch as they get angry at one another and resolve it merely because - well, merely because that's the way the writers want it to be. I did not feel as connected to their characters; not because they aren't bubbly teenagers, but because the story slowly becomes more about their problems and less about who they are. To me, their characters are one of the greatest strengths of the plotline, and as it fades throughout, so does the show's primary charm.

I would feel bad shutting this drama down entirely, since that would be unfair to the refreshing fun that it brought to me as I marathoned it. It is not without its flaws. However, it made me remember my first feelings of romance and filled my heart to the brim with both happiness and bittersweetness. It's hard to find a drama capable of such an effect on a viewer - and I'm glad this one found a way.